Medic's compassion will be tested in Iraq

Medics' compassion will be tested in Iraq
Salt Lake Tribune - United States
Also called secondary traumatic stress disorder, compassion fatigue is often suffered by individuals who work closely with victims of trauma

Medics' compassion will be tested in Iraq
The Utah-based 328th Combat Support Hospital deploys Wednesday
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 09/16/2008 11:42:56 PM MDT


On Wednesday, Sgt. Anil Shandil will deploy to Iraq with the 328th Combat Support Hospital. (Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune)Posted: 7:00 PM- In the Intensive Care Unit at a German hospital for service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Anil Shandil knew the consequences of war in a way few others could.

For two years, Shandil helped care for service members whose limbs had been blown from their bodies, whose faces had been burnt past recognition, whose lives had been forever altered - and sometimes ended.

Now, less than two years after returning from his tour of duty at Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center, Shandil is going to Iraq. "And now," he explained, "my job will be to care for the people who did these things to those soldiers."

About 85 soldiers from the Fort Douglas-based 328th Combat Support Hospital - about a third of them Utahns - will depart Wednesday for a tour of duty in which their mission will be to provide medical care for Iraqi detainees being held by the U.S. military in Iraq. The unit will train for about a month in Ft. Lewis, Wash., and is expected in Iraq by November.

Because the new deployment comes on the heels of the Germany tour, the 328th reservists who served at Landstuhl in 2005 and 2006 were given the option to opt out of the Iraq trip. Shandil, a native of Sacramento, Calif., is one of only a handful of soldiers from the 328th who opted in.
click above for more